RFID-enabling system and method for containers

• US 10,095,893 B2
• Filed: 02/22/2016
• Issued: 10/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meps Real-Time, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Meps Real-Time, Inc.
• Inventors: Hussain, Shariq, Elizondo, Paul M.
• Primary Examiner(s): SHERWIN, RYAN W
• Application Number:
  US15/050,382
• Publication Number:
  US 20160210481A1
• Time in Patent Office: 960 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07749 the record carrier being capable of non-contact communication, e.g. constructional details of the antenna of a non-contact smart card
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/0008 General problems related to the reading of electronic memory record carriers, independent of its reading method, e.g. power transfer
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10178 including auxiliary means for focusing, repeating or boosting the electromagnetic interrogation field comparable booster antennas integrated on the record carrier itself G06K19/07794
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/13 delivered from dispensers
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/60 for the operation of medical equipment or devices
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/00 ICT specially adapted for medical diagnosis, medical simulation or medical data mining; ICT specially adapted for detecting, monitoring or modelling epidemics or pandemics
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/00 ICT specially adapted for the handling or processing of medical references
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/40 relating to drugs, e.g. their side effects or intended usage
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/47 using RFID associated with sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom

Abstract

An RFID-enabling system and method include a probe antenna to introduce a robust EM field into a container to activate RFID tags within the container, regardless of the container'"'"'s resonant frequency. The probe reads the data of the activated RFID tags, and a processor and communications module transmit the RFID tag data to a remote processor. The RFID-enabling module may be used to retrofit existing medication drawers of a medication cabinet or may be used during the construction of a new cabinet. The RFID-enabling system includes auto tuning of the antenna to dynamically compensate for loading changes on the EM field.

Claims

1. An RF (“

radio frequency”

)-enabling system for establishing an RF field within a container having a predetermined size in which items are placed, the RF-enabling system comprising;

a base mounted in a selected location in relation to the container in which items are placed, the container having a container size and the base having a base size selected to be compatible with the container size so that the base and components thereof may interact with items placed within the container;

an enclosure having electrically-conductive walls located around items placed in the container;

a probe located on the base at a position that is within the electrically conductive walls of the enclosure and configured to establish a robust activating RF field within the container at a predetermined frequency range that does not include a resonant frequency of the container;

wherein the position of the probe in relation to the electrically-conductive walls of the enclosure is selected so that reflected energy of the predetermined frequency range within the enclosure is in phase at the probe position to thereby optimize power transfer at the predetermined frequency range into the enclosure;

a transceiver reader unit located on the base configured to control the probe to establish the activating RF field within the container and to receive data signals produced within the container in response to the activating RF field, the reader unit being further configured to process the data signals; and

a communications unit located on the base configured to receive the processed data signals from the reader unit and communicate the processed data signals to a remote location.

2. The RF-enabling system of claim 1 wherein the probe is configured to automatically retune itself to establish the robust activating RF field within the container to accommodate more or fewer items in the container.

3. The RF-enabling system of claim 1 wherein the container is a preexisting container and the size of the base is selected so that the base will be compatible to fit with the size of the preexisting container, whereby the RF-enabling system is used to retrofit the preexisting container.

4. The RF-enabling system of claim 1 wherein the container is a container being constructed and the size of the base is selected so that the base will be compatible to fit with the size of the container being constructed, whereby the RF-enabling system is used to form an integrated part of the container being constructed.

5. The RF-enabling system of claim 1 further comprising multiple probes located on the base, and wherein the reader unit is centrally located on the base.

6. The RF-enabling system of claim 5 comprising two probes and the reader unit comprises an RFID reader circuit board mounted to the base and the reader unit being mounted to an RFID reader circuit board.

7. The RF-enabling system of claim 1 wherein a length of the probe within and in relation to the electrically-conductive walls of the enclosure is selected to allow for energy to be injected into the container such that constructive interference results and a standing wave is established.

8. The RF-enabling system of claim 1 wherein the reader unit is configured to automatically establish the RF field in the container according to a schedule.

9. The RF-enabling system of claim 1 further comprising a data base located at the remote location, the data base containing information pertaining to the items that is correlated with the processed data signals;

and

a remote processor located at the remote location configured to receive the processed data signals, compare them to the data base, and provide information relating to the items based on the comparison.

10. The RF-enabling module system of claim 9 wherein the information relating to the items based on the comparison includes at least one of:

inventory level compared against minimum/maximum levels for reordering;

counterfeit prevention;

ePedigree/serialization capability;

lot control;

medication error prevention;

NDC (“

National Drug Code”

) control; and

expiration control.

11. A radio frequency identification (“

RFID”

)-enabling system for establishing an RF (“

radio frequency”

) field within a container having a predetermined size in which items are placed, the RFID-enabling system comprising;

a base mounted in a selected location in relation to the container in which items are placed, each item having an RFID tag with a unique data identification, the container having a container size and the base having a base size selected to be compatible with the container size so that the base and components thereof may interact with tagged items placed within the container;

an enclosure having electrically-conductive walls located around items stored in the container;

a probe located on the base and configured to establish a robust activating RF field within the electrically-conductive walls of the enclosure within a predetermined frequency range that does not include a resonant frequency of the container, the robust activating RF field selected to activate the RFID tags of the items placed in the container;

a transceiver RFID reader unit located on the base configured to control the probe to establish the activating RF field and control the probe to receive the RFID data signals from activated RFID devices in the container, and process the data signals; and

a communications unit located on the base configured to receive the processed data signals from the reader unit and communicate the processed data signals to a remote location;

wherein the position of the probe in relation to the electrically-conductive walls of the enclosure is selected so that reflected energy of the predetermined frequency range within the enclosure is in phase at the probe position to thereby optimize power transfer at the predetermined frequency range into the container;

a data base located at the remote location, the data base containing information pertaining to the tagged items that is correlated with the data identifications of the tags respectively attached to the items; and

a remote processor located at the remote location configured to receive the processed data signals, compare them to the data base, and provide information relating to the tagged items based on the comparison.

12. The RFID-enabling system of claim 11 wherein the information relating to the tagged items based on the comparison includes at least one of:

inventory level compared against minimum/maximum levels for reordering;

counterfeit prevention;

ePedigree/serialization capability;

lot control;

medication error prevention;

NDC (“

National Drug Code”

) control; and

expiration control.

13. The RFID-enabling system of claim 11 wherein the reader unit is configured to automatically establish the RF field automatically in the container according to a schedule.

14. The RFID-enabling system of claim 11 wherein the probe is configured to automatically retune itself to establish the robust activating RF field within the container to accommodate more or fewer items in the container.

15. The RF-enabling system of claim 11 wherein a length of the probe within and in relation to the electrically-conductive walls of the enclosure is selected to allow for energy to be injected into the container such that constructive interference results and a standing wave is established.

16. The RFID-enabling system of claim 11 wherein the container is a preexisting container and the size of the base is selected so that the base will be compatible to fit with the size of the preexisting container, whereby the module system is used to retrofit the preexisting container.

17. The RFID-enabling system of claim 11 wherein the container is a container being constructed and the size of the base is selected so that the base will be compatible to fit with the size of the container being constructed, whereby the system is used to form an integrated part of the container being constructed.

18. The RFID-enabling system of claim 11 further comprising multiple probes located on the base and wherein the reader unit is centrally located on the base between the multiple probes.

19. The RFID-enabling system of claim 18 comprising two probes and the reader unit comprises an RFID reader circuit board mounted to the base, the probes, the switches, and the reader unit being mounted to an RFID reader circuit board with the reader circuit board.

20. A method for radio frequency identification (“

RFID”

)-enabling “

RFID enabling a container to establish a radio frequency (“

RF”

) field within the container, the container having a predetermined size in which RFID tagged items are placed and a resonant frequency, the method comprising;

forming an enclosure having electrically-conductive walls around the container and the tagged items in the container;

mounting a base within the enclosure in a selected location in relation to a container in which RFID tagged items are placed, the container having a container size and the base having a base size selected to be compatible with the container size so that the base and components thereof may interact with RFID tags on the items placed within the container;

exciting a probe mounted to the base within the enclosure to establish a robust activating RF field within the container within a predetermined frequency range that does not include the resonant frequency of the container;

positioning the probe in relation to the electrically-conductive walls of the enclosure so that reflected energy of the predetermined frequency range within the enclosure is in phase at the probe position to thereby optimize power transfer at the predetermined frequency range into the container;

receiving from the tunable probe unique RFID identification data signals from the RFID tags on the items in the container after they have been activated by the robust activating RF field;

reading and processing the RFID data signals from the activated items in the container; and

communicating the processed RFID data signals to a remote location.

21. The method of claim 20 comprising automatically retuning the probe to establish the robust activating RF field within the container to accommodate more or fewer RFID tagged items in the container.

22. The method for RFID-enabling a container of claim 20 wherein the step of positioning the probe in relation to the electrically-conductive walls of the enclosure so that reflected energy of the predetermined frequency range within the enclosure is in phase at the probe position further comprises selecting a length of the probe within and in relation to the electrically-conductive walls of the enclosure to allow for energy to be injected into the container such that constructive interference results and a standing wave is established.

23. The method of claim 20 wherein the step of exciting a tunable probe is performed according to a schedule.

24. The method of claim 20 further comprising correlating the data identifications of the tags respectively attached to the items to a data base located at the remote location, the data base containing information pertaining to the tagged items;

and

receiving the processed data signals at a remote processor located at the remote location, comparing received processed data signals to the data base, and providing information relating to the tagged items based on the comparison.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the information relating to the tagged items based on the comparison includes at least one of:

inventory level compared against minimum/maximum levels for reordering;

counterfeit prevention;

ePedigree/serialization capability;

lot control;

medication error prevention;

NDC (“

National Drug Code”

) control; and

expiration control.

26. The method of claim 20 wherein the step of mounting a base includes mounting a base having a size selected to fit within a preexisting container and wherein the size of the base is compatible to fit with the size of the preexisting container, whereby the system is used to retrofit the preexisting container.

27. The method of claim 20 wherein the step of mounting a base includes mounting a base having a size selected to fit within a container that is being constructed and the size of the base is selected so that the base will be compatible to fit with the size of the container being constructed, whereby the system is used to form an integrated part of the container being constructed.

28. The method of claim 20 further comprising locating multiple probes on the base and centrally locating the reader unit on the base between the multiple probes.